Posts Tagged black plum

The rainy season is officially upon us. Although I am a little bummed that beach trips will have to take a back seat for now, the rains have actually been a nice change from the sweltering heat. Who doesn’t enjoy bed weather, right?

Fruits that contain tannins are known to have medicinal purposes. Duhat is known to help in curing a bad stomach flu.

One fruit that I associate with the rain is duhat (black plum) and this is probably because my love affair with this seasonal fruit occurred when the rains started to come. I remember feeling quite low that day and was just wandering around the house, trying to keep myself preoccupied. I stumbled onto our garden and found our duhat tree studded with fruits and decided to harvest all of them. Then it started to rain. It rained so hard it felt like I was in a six-jet shower, but I didn’t mind. There’s something about the rain that feels cathartic and picking fruits from your own backyard that relaxes you. So now, whenever I see that our duhat tree is starting to bear fruit, I get all giddy and excited knowing that I will have the pleasure of gathering them later and be reminded that all will be well.

duhat (black plum) shaped like a tear drop

There are several ways to enjoy this fruit but I particularly like chilling them in the ref and shaking them with some rock salt right before consuming. The taste is a mixture of sweet , sour and bitter (and saltiness of course, from the salt). But it also leaves a dry feeling in your mouth which is from the tannins of the fruit. Tannins contain astringent which is what causes one to pucker up when eating unripened fruits or even red wine. Some people don’t like this about duhat but I absolutely love it.